pollination News
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Bee pollination improves crop quality as well as quantity
Bee pollination improves the shape, weight and shelf-life of strawberries, contributing a staggering €1.05 billion to the European strawberry market per year, new research suggests. By blocking bees from a set of plants, the researchers demonstrated the substantial effects of bee pollination on the quality of the fruit. It is well established that insect pollination increases the quantity ...
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Broad Coalition is Building Buzz to Raise Awareness of Pollinator Declines
Today, Beyond Pesticides, Center for Food Safety and Pesticide Action Network, supported by Ceres Trust and joined by more than 60 other organizations, launched a national media campaign to bring attention to the severity of pollinator declines due in part to the use of bee-harming pesticides. The campaign launch was timed to coincide with the beginning of the European Union’s two-year ...
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Powerpollen Announces Commercial License Agreement With Bayer for Innovative Corn Seed Pollination Technology Designed to Increase Yield
PowerPollen® announced a commercial license agreement with Bayer designed to help corn seed production growers increase their yields. PowerPollen’s Pollination-on-Demand technology gives farmers greater flexibility by allowing them to optimize the timing of pollinations. By accessing the Iowa-based ag tech company’s first scalable pollination technology for corn seed, Bayer will ...
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Which seeds to sow for bees?
Farmers could help to maintain populations of bees and other pollinators by sowing inexpensive seed mixes on their land, a new study suggests. Researchers surveyed pollinators visiting study plots in Berkshire, UK, and explored how sowing different seed mixes and using different management techniques affected the flowers produced and the pollinators visiting them. Overall, 84% of the crop ...
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Do agri-environmental schemes benefit insect pollinators?
Agri-environmental schemes (AES) do successfully enhance the number and variety of insect pollinators, research suggests. They are particularly effective when implemented in arable landscapes which also contain some semi-natural habitat. AES were introduced in Europe in the early 1990s in response to declining farmland biodiversity. However, evaluations of their efficacy for biodiversity ...
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Greenpeace welcomes another step in taking action on bee-killing pesticide
A European Commission proposal to restrict the use of a pesticide that has been shown to kill bees received the support of a strong majority of EU country representatives today. 23 EU member states voted in favour of a partial ban on the chemical, with only 2 against and 3 abstaining [1]. Greenpeace believes that the proposed ban will not be enough to allow for bee recovery and that only a full ...
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Method to differentiate open pollinated varieties of maize developed
Open pollinated varieties of maize are going to be easier to distinguish from each other, thanks to scientists at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Africa and Mexico. They have developed a new technique to differentiate the genes of one open pollinated variety from another, particularly important to African farmers, most of whom do not plant hybrid varieties. The ...
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Regulatory Developments: Proposal for Restriction of Neonicotinoid Products in the EU
The European Union (EU) voted April 29, 2013, on a proposal to restrict the use of three neonicotinoid substances for agricultural uses. The substances are clothianidin, imidacloprid, and thiamethoxam. The proposal failed to gain sufficient support from the 27 EU Member States Appeal Committee and was passed to the European Commission (EC), which has confirmed that the proposal will be adopted in ...
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GM seeds can remain in fields longer than previously thought
Despite management practices designed to reduce the risk of genetically modified (GM) volunteer plants setting seed, new research shows that rogue GM plants occur in fields which were planted with GM oil seed rape 10 years earlier. Volunteer plants (plants that have not been planted deliberately) arise because some seed is spilled during harvest and remains in the field to germinate in a ...
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Proposal for Restriction of Neonicotinoid Products in the EU
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By Acta Group
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Mission markets presents to northwest leaders network on impact investing (NW-LNII)
Mission Markets Blog Mission Markets CEO Mike Van Patten presented the Mission Markets investment platform to the Northwest Leaders Network on Impact Investing (NW-LNII) last week in Portland. Below is a write up on the event from the Springboard Innovation Blog. "Mission Markets Founder Presents to NW-LNII" Mike Van Patten, a 20-year veteran of Wall Street, recently launched a platform for ...
By 3BL Media
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EPA Awards Almost Half a Million in Funding to Three Universities for Projects to Reduce Pesticide Risk
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced agricultural grants for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to reduce the use of potentially harmful pesticides and lower risk to bees all while controlling pests and saving money. “These collaborative projects can provide innovative solutions to reduce pesticide risks to pollinators and crops,” said James Jones, ...
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Ozone pollution reduces tomato fruit yield and viability
Ozone harms pollen viability of tomatoes, leading to reduced fruit weight, size and quality, a recent study has revealed. The researchers suggest the effect of ozone on pollen could be a useful way to rapidly test for pollution-induced stress on crop plants in risk assessments. Ground-level ozone damages plants as well as posing a risk to human health. It negatively affects crop yields and ...
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Hudson Valley organic farm produces seeds largely by hand
Drying corn stalks wilt in late summer sun as Ken Greene tours his crops. Calendula flowers are past bloom and brown. Melon leaves lay crinkled by the dirt. Plants have, literally, gone to seed. A perfect picture for an organic seed harvest. "It looks like hell now, but it's actually good for the seeds," said Greene, co-founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library. The small business 70 miles ...
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EPA Awards Almost Half a Million in Funding to Three Universities for Projects to Reduce Pesticide Risk Including Risks to Bees
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that Penn State University would be one of three recipients of agricultural grants for Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to reduce the use of potentially harmful pesticides and lower risk to bees all while controlling pests and saving money. Penn State University will be receiving a grant for $159,632. " Protection of bee ...
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US–Nepal hybrid maize project runs into criticism
Uncertainty hangs over a proposed partnership between US and Nepalese scientists to promote hybrid maize in the Himalayan country, after the project sparked local concerns over the potential loss of traditional local varieties and weak biotechnology regulation. The pilot project of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Nepal's Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives and US ...
By SciDev.Net
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EPA Finds Neonicotinoid Seed Treatments of Little or No Benefit to U.S. Soybean Production
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an analysis of the benefits of neonicotinoid seed treatments for insect control in soybeans. Neonicotinoid pesticides are a class of insecticides widely used on U.S. crops that EPA is reviewing with particular emphasis for their impact on pollinators. The analysis concluded that there is little or no increase in soybean yields using ...
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Sloppy seed-sorting main culprit in GM crop escapes
Careless handling of seeds may be the key reason for the unintended spread of genetically modified (GM) crops, a study has found. The discovery challenges the widespread belief that the main source of GM contamination is the transfer of pollen by bees from GM crops to non-GM counterparts in neighbouring fields. Human error during seed production and handling is the more likely culprit, say the ...
By SciDev.Net
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Impact of volunteer GM maize on conventional crops is low
A recent EU-supported study has analysed the development of volunteer or 'rogue' GM (genetically modified) maize plants in a conventional crop field. It finds that their numbers are low and do not exceed the EU's threshold of 0.9 per cent for incidental GM content. Scientific data on the role of maize volunteers on cross-pollination is limited. The most detailed studies have been conducted in ...
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European bees are at their best health level in years as overwintering losses of colonies sink to record low
European bees are much healthier than many recent media publications appear to suggest. New field data from nearly 400,000 bee colonies from 21 countries in Europe and the Mediterranean show that overwintering losses of honey bee colonies – an important indicator of general bee health – were at their lowest level in years in 2013/2014. “It is great to see that our bees have ...
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